A 12-year-old girl with Down’s syndrome who was badly injured while playing in a Bolton park only fell off her bike and wasn’t attacked by a gang of girls as first thought, police said today.
Original reports stated that the girl was attacked by a gang of girls in Bobby Heywood Park on Wednesday and left with head injuries.
Now a witness who was in the playground at the time of the accident has come forward to say that the girl fell off her bike and banged her head and that there was no other person involved.
Superintendent Steve Nibloe, based at Bolton Police Station, said: “We now know for sure that this girl’s injuries were entirely accidental. She simply fell off her bike and banged her head.
“We did receive a report that she had been assaulted and, as everyone would expect, we had to investigate such a serious allegation.”
Superintendent Nibloe said that the investigation was now complete and they now know for sure that no-one else was involved.
“I want to add however, that all the rumours and speculation about this incident have been unhelpful and potentially damaging to the investigation,” he said.
“We always stressed that we didn’t have the full facts and we would update people once we knew what had has happened.
“We have now done this so we trust the girl can be allowed to recover from her accident in peace.”
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